thursday's connected to friday -- it is thursday, right? i'm teasing you. it is. i'm robin meade. morning, sunshine. here's what's going on. president obama wants to make a move in afghanistan, but he doesn't like any of his options. he's asked his top advisers for help. why even that option isn't getting results. one punch landed boxer mike tyson in the back of a police car. come on. he says the whole thing's a matter of self-defense. and taylor swift gets her moment and then some. her big, big night at the country music awards. and the joke they just couldn't pass up again and again and again. first, though, our top

story. the number of americans who have died from the swine flu may be four times higher than we first thought. "the new york times" says the cdc estimates that h1n1 may have killed 4,000 people in the united states since april. the virus isn't getting more dangerous but the cdc is now counting lab confirmed cases and deaths from complications related to h1n1. president obama got four options from advisers about afghanistan, and he turned them all down. a white house official says the president has growing doubts about the afghan government, and he wants an exit strategy before sending extra troops. so he sent all his staff recommendations back to the drawing board. former secretary of state colin powell supports the president's cautious approach. >> this is a very difficult one for him, and it isn't just a one-time decision. this is a decision that will have consequences for the better part of his administration. so, mr. president, don't get

pushed by the left to do nothing. don't get pushed by the right to do everything. you take your time to figure it out. you're the commander in chief and this is what you were elected for. well, part of what's making this decision so hard is the president's two top men in afghanistan completely disagree about bringing in more gis. richard lui has more on that coming up. heavy rain from what is left of tropical storm ida is now battering the mid-atlantic. virginia's governor declared a state of emergency and there are coastal flood warnings in some places. the storm has moved out of georgia finally but not before flooding several neighborhoods. some are still recovering from the massive flooding back in september. bob has more on the storm and the rest of your forecast in just a few seconds here. hold up. charges have been dropped against an american man who tried to take his kids back from his ex-wife in japan. remember this story? christopher savoy was arrested after allegedly abducting the children as his ex-wife walked them to school. he says she violated a custody agreement by taking them to

japan. he was released from jail last month. uh-oh, mike tyson is in trouble for an incident at the airport. rafer, he's accused of hiding someone. >> police are investigating conflicting accounts of what happened in an airport scuffle between tyson and a paparazzi. both men were booked and released on suspicious of misdemeanor battery. he says he hit him once. he fell and was treated for a cut on the forehead a. spokesman for tyson said he was overly aggressive and tyson was protecting his 10-month-old child. he was co-op ra it tiff. now they're checking to see if there's any surveillance video to see who is telling the truth. >> self-defense, mike tyson. up new, there is no record the ft. hood shooting suspect ever complained to a supervisor about his claims of being harassed over his religion. two senior military officials also tell the associated press

there's no sign he formally requested to leave the military. now, remember, his family has said that he was seeking legal advice about it. meanwhile, his attorney has concerns about his case. >> not only do i have concerns about it, i can tell you i've been approached on the street by many who have expressed the same concern. is it possible for him to get a fair trial, they asked me? and i just simply shake my head and say, well, i guess we'll have to wait and see. >> 13 people died in the shooting at ft. hood, dozens more wounded. if hasan is convicted in a military trial, it will be up to the president to decide whether a death sevntence could be carried out. the military justice system has not executed anyone in nearly half a century. there was a little bit of drama with former miss california usa, carrie prejean, on "larry king live." when larry asked her about her lawsuit and a sex tape she made,

she got ready to bolt. >> larry: in mediation it was discussed why you were med mediating. >> larry, it's completely confidential and you're being inappropriate. okay? you're being inappropriate. >> larry: detroit, hello? >> caller: hi, i'm calling from detroit. i'm a gay man and i love pageants. i'm sure that you have great gay friends who helped you win. what would you give them as advice if they wanted to get married? >> larry: did you hear the question, carrie? did you hear the question? >> awkward. prejean continued the show, though, after a commercial. larry apologized and said that prejean had insisted that there wouldn't be any phone calls from viewers. oh, my goodness.

i would have looked at larry, what's your favorite color, can you answer that one? what's your favorite animal? for goodness sakes, say something. holy cow. she's lovely until she gets the attitude. >> she is beautiful. hi there. >> what's going on? >> so we said it was the remnants of hurricane ida but it's a combination of a couple of things, right? >> it is. >> see, i listen to you. >> i appreciate that. good morning, everyone. let me show you what's happening. this is old ida. the energy is still there. the rain is still here. it's turning into a coastal low just south of cape hatteras. you combine that low pressure with the high pressure from the north. basically through sunday morning this low is only gradually going to shift away to the east. now look at the rain. it's heavy at times philly down to d.c. stretching back into west virginia, but the wind warnings are up there. those are the areas that are

shaded in red. lower parts of virginia and maryland, also the coast of virginia. the yellow shaded areas, wind advisories for today. winds gusting easily to 50 miles an hour. it will be a tough commute for you, no doubt. look at that big stream of rain up the atlantic ocean, piling it in and blasting its way all the way through virginia, back into d.c. and then wrapping around across western virginia through roanoke. you can see there with the blacksburg radar picking up very well. then up to the north the leading edge is right around the philadelphia metro. to new york, i don't think you'll get a lot of rain out of this but the wind is really going to be affecting you basically for the next couple of days. also the rain heavy at times. we have flash flood warnings for a good chunk of north carolina, virginia and for georgia through alabama from the rain from yesterday. we'll have full details in just a bit. a big weather system that's going to be there through the week. >> okay. through the weekend. thanks. there is good news for the housing market. the number of foreclosures is dropping again.

okay, there's still a risk things could get worse. we'll talk about that. check this out. a hockey coach loses it. rafer's going to tell you what got him so fired up.

time now to salute our troops. today's salute is for larry walker johnson from his fiancee. larry's in the navy and is now home. they have five kids between them and they're glad that he's home. >> hi, robin. i am larry walker johnson's fiancee sharisse and i wanted to send this salute out to my wonderful, loving fiance. i really am very, very grateful for all you have done for your country and for us. we are just so, so proud of you for all of the things you have

done for serving your country. you're known as eo-2 johnson. thank you so much. i love you. >> so sweet. if you have somebody in the military we'd be happy to help you salute them, so go to cnn.com/robin. president obama spent two hours debating the strategy in afghanistan yesterday. but he's getting drastically different advice about whether to send more troops. correspondent richard lui, the u.s. envoy to afghanistan is contradicting the commanding general there. so two of the highest positions and they don't agree. >> exactly. eye to eye, here they are not agreeing, as you say. we know general stanley mcchrystal has asked for 40,000 troops. the u.s. ambassador to afghanistan, retired general ike iken eikenberry will only make it more relying on the united states. let president obama know that

right before yesterday's war council meeting. >> having two generals on the ground, the ambassador and general mcchrystal is commander on the ground openly just feuding with each other in public like this is unprecedented. we used to talk about a team of rivals. we never imagined this. >> general eikenberry was the top for 18 months going back to 2006 and 2007. >> okay. so what are the key sticking points for president obama? is the ability of the afghan government -- how much cooperation is he getting from president hamid karzai? >> not as much as he would like. president obama has suggested karzai do more to crack down on corruption and the illegal drug trade that funds terrorist activity there. but senior administration officials say it's skeptical karzai will follow through on his promises. now if he does not, "the new york times" reports the white house is considering shifting

some money from the central government to local afghan leaders who cooperate with u.s. objectives, robin. >> richard, thank you. we'll have to watch this for sure. so your state may have huge money problems. a new report finds that the same economic pressures that pushed california to the brink of insolvency are rattling other states. if there are signs the recession is fading, why are so many states struggling? >> you know how the job market is behind the rest of the economy? it's a little bit like that with state economies. they can take up to two years to recover after the economy starts to do better. check it out. arizona, california -- look on this map. they're the ones in red. you can see along the west coast, up near detroit, michigan up there, too, down in florida as well, new jersey making the list. and one of the problems with this is that when the states can't pay their budgets, they may also have to fire people so

that could mean 900,000 jobs lost. this is a new study by the pew center and it's just more of a drain on the every day that you see out there, a lot of people's jobs, but when you're trying to feel -- this is about confidence but your state government is doing well, it can be hard to be confident. a lot of states looking to raise taxes and slash services. let's talk about the housing market. we have another sign that it might be healing. this morning's statistic is about foreclosure rates. it went down in october. that's three months in a row that at least it went in the right direction. look, it's still at a very high rate but doing better. there's a lot of risk out there. reality track is the author of the study. they do a lot with foreclosed homes and they say a lot of the homes are still at risk because we've still got heavy job losses and we've got a lot of people in those upside-down mortgages and when you're, for whatever reason you got into a mortgage but it's upside-down, you are more likely to default. it's likely you're more in an

out-of-control mortgage so this is -- we've had two signs here. this foreclosure rate and then the home prices that even though things aren't great by any means, things are improving, right direction. back to you. >> right. exactly. it's not great right now but you're right, going upward. a high school teacher just wanted to share her vacation photos on facebook. now she says she got fired for doing something grown-ups are allowed to do. plus, taylor swift made history at last night's music awards and there is nothing kanye west would could do about it this time.

a former high school teacher says that she was forced to resign over her facebook page. ashley payne was a teacher in north georgia. she says that her principal recommended she quit because of a curse word that appeared on her facebook page and pictures

from her european vacation. >> i visited the guinness brewery, i went to italy and had wine. i went to the temple bar district of dublin and drank some alcohol there like any normal adult would. >> well, payne is suing to get her job back. the school system is not commenting on the situation. country music fans witnessed history last night at the cmas. ♪ i was there when we said forever and always ♪ >> 19-year-old taylor swift became the youngest ever to win ent entertainer of the year award. >> i will never forget this moment because in this moment everything that i have ever wanted has just happened to me. >> and fortunately no one interrupted her last night. yeah, people don't -- apparently don't think people forgot about what kanye west did to her at

the mtv awards. we'll show you all the spoofs, multiple spoofs across the show regarding kanye west interrupting her last time. >> tim mcgraw didn't jump up there. but faith hill had one of the best -- >> i'm not going to ruin it for you. if you didn't see the show, cuteness coming up. cute. all right. a minor league hockey coach is making national news for losing it on camera. hi, rafer. just when it rains it pours, right? wait until you see this guy, b robin. he is not only the coach but he is also the general manager of the louisiana ice gators. i give you brad. he does not like a penalty call on one of his players so starts grabbing anything that is not nailed down -- some clothing, here are some hockey sticks, throw that out there on 0 the ice. >> and what was his problem? what didn't he like? >> he didn't like a penalty call but, get this, this was only his second game coaching and the guy lost his cool in the previous

game. 2-2 this guy. so he was ejected to boos from the pensacola crowd. now he is suspended from coaching indefinitely. falcons tight end tony gonzalez and his wife got naked for peta. he and wife october posed as part of the anti-fur campaign which says we'd rather go naked than wear fur. >> her name is october? >> her name is october. not january, october. his teammates had a good laugh. they giggled like kids a little bit. he said it's something he and his wife are passionate. others who have posed dennis rodman and paul mccartney. lastly if that cocky coach video wasn't amazing, the fastest soccer goal ever. the guy kicks it immediately from midfield. look at this. two seconds. >> wow. >> two seconds. from the saudi arabian soccer league. blows the whistle, kicks the ball. it will be up to soccer officials to verify whether it is the fastest ever. >> look at the dance. >> he got a good dance.

>> i think the nfl is calling him. in the next half hour mike tyson is in trouble with police again. we'll have it. >> thank you. okay, travelers, i think a better day except for one pocket. right? >> one corridor, yes, the northeast. it's going to be bad. it's unfortunate, too, because you have high pressure to the north, low pressure off the coast of north carolina. the end result a very strong easterly wind. here is the radar picture. there's jersey, here's pennsylvania. you can see maryland there, heaveny rain pulling on through delaware and virginia, washington, d.c., lots of rain for you today, too. most of it along the coast but the wind will be up for anybody. philadelphia, d.c., anticipate one hour or more delays. definitely going to be a bumpy ride. boston, charlotte, wind. 30-minute to one-hour delays. over to las vegas, wind again in salt lake city. wind switching over to rain. 30-minute to one-hour delays for that area. more details on that in about a half hour. okay. have you heard about this movie,

bob, called "2012"? >> yes. >> it has a lot of people wondering if earth's doomsday is right around the corner. >> gone, gone, gone. still here just a lot better. >> some youtubers are scared but others are saying calm down.

president obama leaves today for his first visit to asia as president. he's going to star in tokyo and make stops in beijing and seoul. he'll talk about the u.s. economy, the trade deficit with china, and his plans for afghanistan among other things. bad news for drivers in the san francisco bay area. the bay bridge is going to be shut down again for more repairs. crews have more work to do on the same 80-foot-long steel bar that cracked earlier this year. now it's not clear yet when the work is going to happen. lou dobbs is leaving cnn. at the end of last night's show he said he's leaving the network effective immediately. over the past few years he has taken a stand on hot topics like

immigration, and he says that he's going to look for other ways to play a more activist role on the issues. i think he said advocacy journali journalism. i want to say good morning. you're up early. i'm robin meade. welcome. every year, get this, an average of 11 u.s. commercial pilots try to fly under the influence of alcohol. "usa today" says faa records show it's been happening since 1997. now the agency's currently reviewing the case of united airlines pilot arrested in london on monday suspected of being drunk on the job. president obama is not ready to sign off on any of the proposals for a troop increase in afghanistan. now yesterday he asked his war council to revise the four current options which range between 20,000 and 40,000 more u.s. troops. over to correspondent richard lui. is there one that he's at least leaning toward, favors more? one of the four, robin, senior administration officials say one version that calls for about 34,000 more troops has

been a favorite at the pentagon. the plan has been described as a half and half approach about half of the troops would be fighting, the other half would be holding ground so the afghans can regroup but, again, this is only one of the four options. administration officials say the other three options, robin, are different mixes of those components. >> so this debate has been going on -- you're talking months now. what is holding up the president's decision, do we know? >> months. and this was their eighth meeting we're hearing details from, robin. a senior administration official says the president wants to clarify exactly how and when u.s. troops will hand over responsibility to the afghans, basically an exit strategy. analysts say even with the time line the u.s. commitment in afghanistan could last years. >> and even if you send troops tomorrow, you are still not getting all the troops in until the end of the following year. so, you know, decisions made

today actually play out over a very long time. if you delay this decision, say by several months while wait in for the afghan government to become less corrupt or whatever it is you want, you're looking suddenly at troops arriving, you know, in 2012. >> now how do folks across the united states feel? there is a poll that found people are evenly split on whether president obama is taking too long, robin, to make a decision here. >> okay. >> pretty close. >> isn't that interesting? okay, thank you. this morning a jury starts considering whether to give the death penalty to the man who killed a tv news anchor in arkansas. vance was found guilty yesterday of beating anne pressly to death last year. he shouted as he was taken from the courthouse. >> a corrupt system. >> today was justice and it's taken a year to get to it. the parents and all of us as friends. >> the jury has two sentencing options, death or life without

parole. if they just can't decide a judge will impose a life sentence. 33 minutes past the hour. okay, the northeast not a great place this morning for the morning rush and bob can show you why. good morning. >> good morning, robin. it's northeast, mid-atlantic. a lot of wind and a lot of rain, too. now it's gaining aly strength just south of cape hatteras. the here is your low center. you can see the high pressure region up to the north and it's the difference between pressures, really gets the winds cranking. you will see the wind right up the ocean not only today but it will last through about sunday afternoon before finally that low begins to unravel just a bit and moves over to the east. the heaviest rain by far is right around washington and new york city as well. you're seeing it all wrap around over to the west so we're looking at the rain also into western parts of virginia. northern parts of north carolina. if you're trying to get down 77 today, it will be a problem and, again, winds today from boston all the way down to new york

gusting to about 25, maybe 30 miles per hour. you're going to watch the wind pick up in intensity around d.c. getting to about 45 miles per hour there. along the coast we have wind advisories and flood advisories, too. 8 inches a possible. so we'll get more details on that coming up, robin, in just about a half hour. rain, rain, rain and then some. last night on the "joy behar show" serena talked about her outburst at the u.s. open that cost her the last point in the tournament. >> what was it that ticked you off that day so much? what was it that the umpire, the ref said -- what do you call them in tennis? >> she was the line judge. >> the line judge. umpire, referee, i'm really a sports moron. >> no, it was just a heated moment. i relate it to a car accident at times. if you get in an accident and hit someone or someone hits you and you get out naturally you're shocked and you're angry and but

then you just deal with it and you move on. >> okay. catch "the joy behar show" at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on hln. cbs is agreeing to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars and it's all about what may have been on the store shelves. also ahead, a woman attacked by a 200-pound chimp is finally opening up about her injuries. you're going to hear what she told oprah winfrey.

the woman who was attacked by a 200-pound chimp finally revealed her heavily damaged face on the oprah show yesterday. she said that even though she is blind and has to eat through a

straw, she is not angry about the attack. during most of the interview she kept her face hidden under a veil. >> was it your job to help take care of him, because this was your boss? >> no. it was her pet thand she couldn come home that night, really only two times i fed him. >> so you were familiar with him. were you afraid of him? >> yeah, holy. >> well, during an interview with the associated press nash said she warned the owner the chimp was violent and said it pounded on its bars so violently that its hands bled. a top lawmaker may propose higher taxes on wealthy people to help pay for the health care reform. our money expert jennifer westhoven has more on how this would work. good morning. >> good morning. i think you hear higher taxes and you go, whoa, what are they doing?

are they cutting into my paycheck again? yes, but the democrats only for the risk. harry reid is considering higher taxes on the rich to help pay for health care legislation. that's from a democratic source. by rich they have a new definition f. you make more than $250,000 a year. so one option they're looking at or he's looking at would be to raise payroll tax that is go to medicare. right now that's about 1.4% of your income. no final decision has been made but of course we keep watching as the health care debate goes on and here we see an idea that could have a direct impact on your paycheck. so you go to the pharmacy, maybe to pick up some medicine, some snacks, are you checking the expiration dates on all your products? i don't always remember to. well, maybe we all should. cvs is going to pay $875,000 settling claims in new york that its shelves had all kinds of old, expired products -- eggs, milk, over-the-counter drugs,

baby formula. state investigators said they found egregious expired products, their word, at 60% of the cvs stores. some of them more than two years old. oh, no! i'm sure that's not the milk. they would have noticed. wow. cvs says just remember a settlement doesn't mean that they were guilty, right, it means they're paying to settle up these claims and they said they will strengthen monitoring and put up notices to remind you to check the date. oh, it's my job. okay. >> yeah, wait a minute. isn't it someone else's job to check the date? >> it is always your job to look out for yourself and just a quick one, robin, stocks hit a fresh high coming off that big bottom. that's some good news in a bad economy. the dow started this morning 10,291. not a huge gain last night but still enough it's keeping this winning streak up six days in a row market gains. >> all right, thank you. you look really great in green,

by the way. >> i think we match a little bit. >> looks like we all work for the same airline here. everyone is wearing green. so at the country music association awards last night it did not take long to start joking about kanye west interrupting taylor swift during the mtv awards. co-host brad paisley and carrie underwood opened the show with a medley including this. ♪ mamas don't let your babies grow up to be kanye ♪ ♪ let them pick guitars and drive them old trucks ♪ ♪ cowboys have manners ♪ they don't interrupt >> i love it. that was cute, wasn't it? and it was just like one of many references to kanye west. do not interrupt taylor swift. all right, you won't find former heavyweight champion mike tyson in the ring anymore. you know that. but it doesn't mean that he's not, well, looking for a fight. i don't know if that's fair to say but he is in trouble for an

incident.

♪ you've got it going again quarter to the hour. senate majority leader harry reid may propose paying for health care by raising the payroll tax on the wealthy. that's from a democratic source. now we're talking about people making more than $250,000 a year. there is no word on how much of an increase is being looked at. right now that is 1.4% of your income. a man is okay after doctors removed a pound and a half of metal from his stomach. they thought that it was appendicitis but surgeons in peru found nails, coins, copper wire and scrap metal inside of him, thus, why you see the stitches. no word on why he ate it but the doctors are looking at his mental health. the man says that he may keep eating metal for sport.

investing in the stock market can be a gamble but clark howard says if you play your cards right you can weather the ups and downs. it seems that we are such pack animals that we follow the herd when we shouldn't. and i'm going to give you an example. a lot of people really were shell-shocked by the huge decline in the stock market that went on for about a year and a half, saw your account values just evaporate right before your eyes in your 401(k) or i.r.a.s or whatever and what did so many people do? they did what's called capitulation where at the worst possible moment when things were really in the toilet people said i can't take this anymore, sold out their positions and put their money into ultra safe things. now the stock market has had a big runup that may be running out of steam, don't know, but people were pushing back into stocks after they already recovered big value.

doesn't work. you're working against yourself. put money in steady as you go. i'm clark howard. for more ways for you to invest wisely, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. did you know clark howard serves in the georgia state guard and this weekend you're going to see him serving our troops. clark and i teamed up to help the soldiers and you save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch us in the special presentation at 6:00 a.m., noon, and 4:00 p.m. eastern on saturdays and sunday right here on hln. also, if you'd like to help the victims of the ft. hood shootings or their families go to cnn.com/robin. check under the important website section and click on impact your world. so the wife of the dodgers' owner is speaking out for the first time about their messy divorce that everyone has been gossiping about anyway. rafer has that. good morning. good morning. there are two sides to every argument. >> yeah. >> and, you know -- >> hold on. i don't hear you for a second.

yeah, i think your microphone mighting back. do you want to go with the hard wire? for those at home -- >> are we there? are we there yet? that's live tv for you. anyway -- did you like sit down and your butt turned it off? >> something like that. as we move on this divorce has been played out in the media so far, when my mike has been working, but with only frank mccourt's allegations being made public. well, he says she had an affair with her driver before he fired her as team ceo. now jamie is firing back telling the "l.a. times" that's a lie and she never had af affair with anybody during their 30 years of marriage. 30 years. >> she said you lied. >> you lied. now she was denied her job back by a court. now the two are battling over who gets ownership of the team. in other news mike tyson is in trouble with police again. he was arrested and released at l.a.x. on misdemeanor assault. a paparazzo said tyson hit him, he fell to the ground and he's been treated for a cut.

a tyson swoexwoman says he was trying to protect his 10-month-old child. from homeless to nfl star, ravens offensive lineman michael oher had his life made into a movie, the blind side, starring sandra bullock. she doesn't play him. tonight an exclusive interview with oher on his amazing story, how he turned his life around at 5:00 p.m. eastern. i highly recommend it. and a 61-year-old graduate student is saying put me in coach. that's right. 61-year-old tom thompson, a father of four and a full-time student and kicker for division iii austin college has not played since high school but he's hoping to get in this weekend. he's 40 years older than the other kids but they say he's just one of the guys. they're playing trinity university in the season finale. the coach says he's planning on getting him in. >> oh, wow, 61. >> 61. he looks in great shape. he says he gets there an hour early for practice all the time and he's very dedicated. >> i guess he has some years of

eligibility left. thank you. bored? maybe you should make a video of yourself and hope you don't get kicked out. ♪ today's viral video has been clicked on nearly a million times. we dug it up for you on youtube. >> nobody is paying attention to her? >> yeah, i know. the nba star took a moment to show you how he stays connected. >> i am rudy gay, and i play in the nba. i spent 100 days per year on the road. some things that i cannot travel

without has to be my phone chargers and laptop and my head phones. i list dwroen to a lot of jay-z. you don't know how things are cooked on the road, and it's tough for the diet. i forget my room number a lot and i just end up in the lobby trying to figure out what room i'm in. and roll up your clothes. it's easier to pack. i just try to, you know, call as much as i can. thanks for spending time with me. i will see you on the road. >> well, new information about the suspect in the alleged ft. hood shootings.